The role of nucleotides in the nutrition of newly weaned pigs
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Date
2016-03-23, 2015-08-17
Authors
Waititu, Samuel
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canadian Journal of Animal Science
Animal Nutrition
Animal Nutrition
Abstract
A major challenge to the pig industry is to find potential alternatives for in-feed sub-therapeutic antibiotics (used as antimicrobial growth promoters, AGP) in starter diets of weaner pigs to mitigate weaning-associated growth stasis. The effect of a nucleotide-rich yeast extract (NRYE) as an in-feed AGP alternative was investigated using four studies. The first study investigated the effect of supplementing 0.1 and 0.2% NRYE without or with the recommended AGP dosage on growth performance and nutrient utilization. Supplementing AGP without or with 0.1% NRYE improved growth performance compared with control, whereas supplementing 0.1 or 0.2% NRYE without AGP resulted in similar growth performance as AGP. The second study investigated the potential of 0.1% NRYE to fully or partially substitute in-feed AGP in piglet diets supplemented with graded levels (25, 50, 75 and 100%) of the recommended AGP dosage. Supplementing NRYE improved growth performance compared to control, increasing AGP level reduced the beneficial effect of NRYE in piglets receiving more than 25% of recommended AGP. The third study investigated the effect of NRYE on growth performance, immune response, gut structure and gut microbiota using a sanitary challenge model. Supplementing 0.1% NRYE to piglets under unsanitary conditions improved ileal immune response by upregulating inflammatory cytokines, and positively modulating proliferation of beneficial gut bacteria and suppression of harmful ones in both clean and unclean rooms. In the fourth study, an E. coli lipopolysaccharide challenge model was used to study the effect of NRYE without or with carbohydrases (ENZ) on growth performance, blood profile, immune response and gut structure. Lipopolysaccharide-challenged piglets receiving NRYE or ENZ + NRYE showed beneficial responses in gut structure, blood cell profile and immunity commensurate with AGP, though the latter had better overall growth performance. Taken together, the results show that NRYE may improve growth performance of weaner pigs by modulating the immune system and gut microbiota, and preventing weaning-associated gut atrophy. Furthermore, the results indicate that the effect of NRYE on the immune system was more pronounced, hence, suggesting that future studies should target to elucidate the mechanism by which supplemental nucleotides modulate the immune system during weaning.
Description
Keywords
Piglet, Weaning, Growth performance, Gut microbiota, Gut structure, Yeast, Immune response, Digestibility
Citation
Harvard
MLA
MLA